Technology
8 April 2021New travelling trends quickly change the tourism industry as well as our habits. Developments in means of transport are the messengers of a more radical change to completely transform the travelling industry soon. Yes, we are talking about travelling to space.
Space has always been the most interesting place for humans. We learned more and more about this dark yet shiny place over the years, but it is still unreachable for most of us. Ancient mythical stories imagined gods up in the air; people dreamed of heroes that invented wings to reach the sun... The change in travelling habits with the invention of airplanes also changed space studies.
As a result of these studies, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space in 1961. The crew of Apollo 11 was the first to land on the Moon in 1969. Since that day, travelling to space has been a part of space studies, resulting in almost 600 people journeying into space. Even though this is a relatively low number, latest developments indicate that this number will increase quickly in the near future.
The relatively low number is primarily caused by the expensiveness of space travel. Most of the people who have been to space until now were astronauts, but the trend is changing for the benefit of civilians. Many companies from SpaceX to Nasa, Virgin Galactic, and Space Adventures have been working on opening space to tourism in recent years. Since we are talking about astronomical prices for space travelling, only ultra-rich people can go for these journeys for now. For example, the Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberté paid USD 35 million for a couple of weeks in space.
The status-quo is being challenged especially by the successes of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s establishment. Travelling to different planets and forming colonies there are no longer a dream, or only the plot of a sci-fi movie. The developments in 3D printing technologies currently focus only on self-generating printers. This way, a printer sent to Mars will be able to create more printers and form a colony without the need for human help. Humans will follow and settle there when everything is ready. Unbelievable, right?
Travelling to space is a part of today and the future... Just like the way the traditional understanding of travelling was transformed with new travelling trends; we are on the verge of a new transformation. The journeys we know from the Jetsons and sci-fi movies await us. One ticket to Mars, please!
